Ntozake Shange’s play “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf” is a poem of healing, one of catharsis, with much of the particular pain and anguish it expresses the result of a being a woman, and a black woman at that. To achieve catharsis you have to go through some pretty heavy stuff, and to be sure there are cathartic tears in Techmoja Dance & Theatre Co.’s production of “Colored Girls,” which runs at the Red Barn Studio Theatre through Sunday, March 9. There’s also cathartic laughter, and enough truly powerful moments to reminder us that Shange’s play is still one of the most potent performance pieces ever written.

Kevin Lee-y Green directs and provides original choreography for what Shange termed a “choreopoem,” and while there are some dancers on stage in the 90-minute show’s first half, they are mostly hidden behind a sheet so that their moves are seen as silhouettes. It’s an unnecessary distraction, especially since most of the time it’s hard to make out exactly what’s supposed to be going on up there on that sheet. A little bit of humor and movement shows through, but it would’ve been nice to just have the dancers roam free where the audience can see them.

nice directorial touches — a moving opening musical number that sets the play’s proud, I-will-survive tone, a live sax and keyboard player — and Green does a fine job of moving his seven actresses around. But at times it feels like he’s trying to do too much, and the play’s first half often feels busy. Once Green steps back and lets the actresses interpret Shange’s words without a lot of distractions, things go much better, eventually reaching a level of emotional power that few performances achieve.

“We came to share our worlds with you” the seven actresses repeat in unison at one point, and while some of Shange’s language can be a bit abstract, there are many moments in the 40-year-old play that still resonate with relevance. This is a 1970s feminist play from an African-American woman’s perspective, but it doesn’t feel at all dated, which says something about the strength and universality of Shange’s writing. The actresses all dress in black, each with a color that distinguishes them.

Adrienne DeBouse, the lady in orange, is both sad and funny during a drunken monologue in which she expresses that she just wants love. That’s a running theme in this show, love that has been rejected by men, and the monologues confer worth on a woman’s love by asserting that it’s too beautiful, too sanctified, too delicate, too “Saturday night,” too complicated to reject.

The play’s energy reaches its peak with a rousing monologue by Dierdre Parker, the lady in green, who had the audience responding to her confrontation with a stuff-stealer, or more likely, a soul-stealer. The energy keeps flowing when Parker’s monologue morphs into a full-cast meet-up with the actresses mocking the men in their lives who are constantly telling them, “I’m sorry.” The audience was uproarious in a laughter that seemed to come from recognition, and Tomasina Depp as the lady in blue ended the section emphatically with a final kiss-off that’s a thing of beauty: “You’re mean, low-down, triflin’ and no-count. Instead of being sorry all the time you should enjoy being yourself.”

Charlon Turner has a couple of nicely done monologues as the lady in purple, especially one about unfaithfulness that ends with her uniting as sisters with the women her man’s cheated on her with. And Sandra McClammy as the lady in brown has a heart-warming turn as a character who reminisces about being influenced as a child by the story of Toussaint Louverture, the man who led Haiti in its war of independence from France and, most importantly, didn’t take any guff from white folks.

The actresses occasionally overplay their hands, as when Netta Mikissic, who is still a winning, talented performer, recounts her character’s unwanted pregnancy with a bit too much histrionic emotion. It’s a tough scene to play, and given the subject matter strong emotions are certainly warranted, but it feels like too much for the intimate Red Barn space. Mikissic has more success elsewhere, particularly in a monologue about being young and footloose.

Moments throughout the play feel underplayed or rushed-through, something that could be a product of opening night, but it’s impossible to deny the emotion of the play’s final monologue, during which Regina McCleod recounts a woman’s, and her children’s, horrible abuse at the hands of a man. It’s a devastating monologue, and McCleod does it justice.

Andy Motley’s lights feel harsh early on — the spotlight that’s used is mighty big for the small Red Barn space — but, like the show itself, they get more effective as the play goes on. During the show’s final scene there is lovely lighting on the head scarves of the women during a healing laying on of hands, when these amazing characters make it to the end of their rainbows.

About This Blog

The WAE: Wilmington-area Arts & Entertainment is dedicated to experiencing, discussing and promoting the arts in Southeastern N.C. From theater and all manner of music to visual art, dance, festivals and more, The WAE is populated by people who are immersed in local A&E. If it’s about A&E in Southeastern N.C., then we’re all about it.